Suspect in Gateway hostage-taking, fire made good on threats

May 24, 2013

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Deadly Fire breaks out during standoff in Gateway: Lee County deputies were trying to peacefully end a standoff in Gateway on Wednesday when the suspect allegedly set the house on fire. Video by Marisa Kendall/news-press.com

Arthur Hohensee once told his now ex-wife he would kill everyone if she tried to get a divorce, and it would take a SWAT team to take him out.

On Wednesday, a SWAT team descended on Hohensee’s former home, two weeks after the divorce his ex-wife asked for was finalized, but he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound before law enforcement could take him into custody.

Lee County deputies responded to a domestic violence call Wednesday at 11190 Lakeland Circle in the Silverlakes neighborhood of Gateway. Deputies said 74-year-old Hohensee had fired shots at his former wife and daughter, and then shot at a responding deputy. No one was hurt, and after returning fire, deputies pulled the two women from the home through a window.

Hohensee went back inside the house. As a SWAT team attempted to take him into custody, the home he was hiding in burst into flames. Hohensee is suspected to have started the fire, but the sheriff’s office had not released an official cause Thursday. Firefighters were unable to battle the flames because of the threat Hohensee posed, and the home was destroyed. Once the ruble cooled, deputies found Hohensee’s body inside.

The medical examiner confirmed the identification of Hohensee on Thursday afternoon.

In fear, frustration

“She knew he was going to do something,” Melissa Skeen, Bonnie Hohensee’s attorney, said. “She was deathly afraid of him.”

In the petition, Bonnie Hohensee described several alleged incidents where Arthur acted violently toward her.

Once he choked her until she bit his arm to get free, the petition states. Another time, he went on a shooting rampage and threw trash around the house while shouting at and insulting her, according to the petition.

Bonnie Hohensee filed for divorce last year, after 53 years of marriage. Two weeks ago, a Lee County court gave Bonnie ownership of the Lakeland Circle home they had shared.

“I have spent my whole life struggling and planning for my family and our future,” Arthur Hohensee said in a May 2 letter to the court. “Only to see everything that I have sacrificed for go down the drain, in such a short amount of time. Can anyone even imagine how absolutely devastating this would be to a person of my age? My life is in God’s hands now.”

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Arthur Hohensee asked the court to sell the home at an asking price of $279,000, giving him 50 percent of the proceeds. He said he had barely enough money to live on.

But the court determined Arthur Hohensee had already withdrawn all funds from three bank accounts he shared with his ex-wife. The court allowed him to keep the $95,370, and gave Bonnie Hohensee the house in exchange, according to court documents.

Skeen, Bonnie’s attorney, said Hohensee’s actions Wednesday guaranteed Bonnie will not get her legal share in their divorce.

The home destroyed in Wednesday’s fire was insured, but Bonnie Hohensee was also supposed to receive about $3,000 a month from her ex-husband’s pension and Social Security. Now that he is dead, she’ll receive a fraction of that. Arthur Hohensee took out a loan against his life insurance policy, meaning Bonnie won’t see that money either.

“She’s pretty destitute,” Skeen said.

Arthur Hohensee made it clear in court he never intended to give his ex-wife a dime of his pension or alimony, according to court documents.

Friends and neighbors

Skeen said Arthur Hohensee was suffering from dementia in the final months before his death, and did things that didn’t make sense.

He had been abusive throughout his 53 years of marriage, but Bonnie Hohensee filed for divorce last year once the dementia set in and his violence became irrational, Skeen said.

Bonnie Hohensee is staying in Fort Myers with her daughter, Susan Cordella, who was in the Gateway home when Arthur Hohensee began firing shots Wednesday, Skeen said. People from the local church are bringing them money, food and clothes.

“(Bonnie) said physically she’s OK,” Skeen said. “Mentally she didn’t sound so good, but we’ll get working on that.”

There was no answer Thursday at numbers listed for Bonnie Hohensee and Cordella.

Vivian Villa, 32, said she remembers Arthur Hohensee as a sweet, lonely man, not the monster some have made him out to be. She tears up when talking about him.

The two became close after Hohensee spent time at Microtel Inn & Suites in Lehigh Acres where Villa works. Her children, ages 10, 6 and 3, called him Grandpa Art. Hohensee called Villa his daughter.

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Villa said Hohensee was distraught over his family problems.

“He would cry, morning (and ) night here,” she said.

To alleviate his loneliness, Villa in October asked Hohensee to move into a Lehigh Acres home with her, her husband and her children.

On Wednesday, Hohensee woke up a little disoriented because he hadn’t slept with his oxygen tank, Villa said. But he called her around 1 p.m. and said he was going to lie down because he was tired, and he’d see her at 8 p.m. That was the last Villa spoke to him.

“I was still in denial this morning,” she said Thursday, “until I went out and didn’t see his car.”

On Wednesday, Villa received a call about a SWAT team storming Hohensee’s old house. She came home from work and looked in his room. The holder where Hohensee always kept his gun was empty. Then she saw a note he left, thanking Villa and saying he would keep her in his heart.

“I don’t know what drove him to that,” she said. “I have no clue. It’s shocking.”

Rich McConahy, who lives next door to the crime scene, said his home suffered minor smoke damage from the fire, and he is burning candles to get rid of the smell. The neighbors are trying to get back to normal, he said.

“We’re all just in a state of shock,” McConahy said. “We have good moments with bad moments. It’s going to take some time, but we’ll get through this.”